Have the St. Louis Cardinals Squandered Prime Years of Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado?
Sportsgrid Staff
Host · Writer
What Now?
As St. Louis continues to watch the clock tick on Arenado and Goldschmidt’s primes, the Cardinals have become hard to watch. If this isn’t obvious to Mozeliak by now, it likely will be by the summer.
The good news for Cardinals fans? St. Louis has a deep farm system, which could lead to promising returns down the road. The organization just has to accept the current reality of its situation first.
Homegrown players have been the key to many Cardinals championships, including two titles under Mozeliak’s watch. So why not return to the strategy that has made this once-proud organization so successful over the years?
That reckoning may have to come sooner than St. Louis anticipated.
Stay ahead of the game and elevate your sports betting experience with SportsGrid.
Did the Cards Waste Prime Years of Arenado and Goldschmidt?
The St. Louis Cardinals, coming off a dismal 71-91 season in 2023, now find themselves in the midst of a potential second consecutive losing campaign in 2024. With the team sitting seven games below .500 in mid-May, questions abound regarding this season.
Few believed the Cardinals were as bad as their 2023 record suggested. After all, they still boasted two of baseball’s premier position players in third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Additionally, many anticipated a resurgence in 2024 following an active offseason.
However, last season may have been the first warning sign about the Cardinals—a warning many ignored due to St. Louis’s longstanding tradition of winning baseball. This history has earned them the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of many fans.
This post by Seth Carlson appeared first on Just Baseball.
Underwhelming Tenure for Cardinals With Arenado and Goldschmidt
Let’s start by putting this into context. Paul Goldschmidt joined the Cardinals in 2019 when they acquired him from the Diamondbacks. Nolan Arenado arrived two years later in a trade with the Rockies, widely regarded as a lopsided deal in favor of St. Louis.
But step back for a moment: considering that the Cardinals’ objective is to win every year, how successful have those trades really been? After Goldschmidt’s first year in St. Louis, where the team reached the NLCS only to be swept by the Nationals, they haven't come close to returning to the World Series.
In fact, they've regressed. The Cardinals lost to the Padres in the 2020 Wild Card Series and haven't advanced past that round since. This remains true even after acquiring Arenado just before the 2021 season.
A Cardinals team expected to be a force with the duo of Arenado and Goldschmidt heading into 2021 fell short in October, losing the Wild Card game to the Dodgers. The following year saw a similar fate, as St. Louis was swept in the Wild Card series by the Phillies.
Despite two postseason appearances together, Arenado and Goldschmidt have no playoff wins to show for it. This starkly contrasts with “The Cardinal Way” that has defined St. Louis' illustrious history.
However, it's evident that this lack of team success isn't due to Arenado or Goldschmidt’s individual performance. In fact, let's examine each player’s statistics since they joined the Cardinals.
The Numbers
Nolan Arenado Paul Goldschmidt 489 G, .271/.328/.486, 93 HR, .815 OPS, 124 OPS+ 721 G, .281/.368/.487, 134 HR, .855 OPS, 134 OPS+ Download the SportsGrid App
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Aging Roster
It’s not as if team president John Mozeliak and the front office haven’t had opportunities to make adjustments: the team has shown it can make significant moves when needed. They've signed notable players like former Cubs catcher Willson Contreras, ace right-hander Sonny Gray, and veteran pitchers Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, all of whom joined this past winter.
The result is a roster that ranks among the oldest in baseball in 2024, with a combined pitching age nearing 32 and an average hitter age of 28, leading to an overall average roster age of 30. This can only be sustainable for so long, especially in an NL Central division teeming with young talent like Paul Skenes and Jared Jones in Pittsburgh, and Elly De La Cruz in Cincinnati, with more young stars on the horizon.
What Now?
As St. Louis continues to watch the clock tick on Arenado and Goldschmidt’s primes, the Cardinals have become hard to watch. If this isn’t obvious to Mozeliak by now, it likely will be by the summer.
The good news for Cardinals fans? St. Louis has a deep farm system, which could lead to promising returns down the road. The organization just has to accept the current reality of its situation first.
Homegrown players have been the key to many Cardinals championships, including two titles under Mozeliak’s watch. So why not return to the strategy that has made this once-proud organization so successful over the years?
That reckoning may have to come sooner than St. Louis anticipated.
Stay ahead of the game and elevate your sports betting experience with SportsGrid.
Did the Cards Waste Prime Years of Arenado and Goldschmidt?
The St. Louis Cardinals, coming off a dismal 71-91 season in 2023, now find themselves in the midst of a potential second consecutive losing campaign in 2024. With the team sitting seven games below .500 in mid-May, questions abound regarding this season.
Few believed the Cardinals were as bad as their 2023 record suggested. After all, they still boasted two of baseball’s premier position players in third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Additionally, many anticipated a resurgence in 2024 following an active offseason.
However, last season may have been the first warning sign about the Cardinals—a warning many ignored due to St. Louis’s longstanding tradition of winning baseball. This history has earned them the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of many fans.
This post by Seth Carlson appeared first on Just Baseball.
